The invention relates generally to devices for enabling cables to be pulled from an underfloor raceway deck through a concrete slab floor for connection to an in-floor service fitting for such cables, to activate the service fitting. It relates specifically to a device insertable into a hole formed through the slab floor, after setting of the concrete therein, and through an adjacent raceway cell wall.
The prior art discloses insert devices, adapted to be preset by being mounted on an underfloor cellular raceway deck prior to forming the concrete slab floor. For activation thereof, the particular preset insert device at the desired location for a cable service fitting is located, and the concrete thereabove is tapped away from the surface of the enclosing cover plate thereon. The cover plate is then removed, whereupon the cables may be pulled through the preset device for connection to the service fitting to activate same.
However, a multiplicity of such preset insert devices must be mounted on the raceway deck, in rigid linear modular configurations, to insure the location of one such device at a to-be-selected desired location. Most of such preset devices are never used, which makes the use of such devices very expensive and inefficient. Further, a preset insert device may not be located at the precise desired location when activation occurs.
The prior art further discloses insert devices, adapted to be mounted in a slab floor after setting of the concrete therein, and in an adjacent underfloor raceway cell, through which concentric different-diameter holes may be formed for receiving the device. A single afterset insert device may be installed at the precise desired location resting on a platform formed by the smaller-diameter concentric hole in the underfloor raceway cell for activation of the service fitting, thus economizing over the use of a multiplicity of preset insert devices.
However, the prior art does not disclose an afterset insert device, installable in a substantially uniform-diameter hole formed in the slab floor and underfloor raceway cell, including a mechanism at one end thereof, automatically engageable with the raceway cell wall, upon such end clearing the raceway cell wall, without the use of any tools, operable and adjustable rapidly and efficiently from the opposite end of the device upon pressing same into and through the hole in the floor and raceway cell wall, with positioning maintained through pressure exerted therein.
Further, in installing afterset insert devices, the fire rating of the slab floor is significantly affected by forming the hole through the slab floor in which the aforeset insert device is to be mounted. Such hole through the slab floor, with the hollow afterset insert device mounted therein, enables heat, fire, or smoke to pass therethrough and be transmitted from floor to floor, significantly reducing the fire-rating of the floor, causing the floor system to violate the building code, and making the building unsafe.
Further, if a hole of larger diameter is formed through the floor, to enable more cables and/or wider cables to pass therethrough, this increases the transmissibility of heat, fire, or smoke through the floor, further reducing the fire-rating thereof and endangering the safety of people and property in the building.
Building codes have mandated the restoration of the fire rating of the floor, with the through-floor penetrating insert device therein, to the fire rating of the floor without the hole therethrough, for safety purposes.
The prior art discloses the technique of spraying fire-proofing materials on the underfloor cellular raceway deck to prevent the transmission of heat, fire, or smoke, in an effort to comply with the building codes. However, such spray-on fireproofing is expensive, inefficient, and relatively ineffective.
The prior art does not disclose an afterset insert device which is a fire-rated slab penetration, and which includes intumescent elements positioned therein so as to expand and fill the hole in the floor, under self-generated pressure, upon being subjected to heat, to efficiently and effectively prevent through-floor transmission of heat, fire, or smoke, and to thereby restore the fire rating of the slab floor, and comply with the building codes, in an efficient and effective manner, in a cellular floor system without requiring any spray-on fireproofing thereof. It further does not disclose such a device which is automatically vertically adjustable to effectively compensate for floor slab deflection.